The approval of the agreement to add Bartlett Grain Company to the village’s TIF district now goes to the full board of trustees for a vote next week. Bartlett is currently building a new grain-handling facility on the south end of town.

Mayor Gordon Jumper told the committee that the company is eligible for reimbursable costs of $14 million. It’s anticipated that the value of the property south of Southbrooke Road will be $19-to-$20 million.

The equalized assessed valuation is estimated to be between $6-and-$7 million, meaning a real estate tax bill of about $450,000. There is a provision in the agreement with Bartlett that the village will only reimburse 90 percent of the bill.

Jumper says the move should see South Jacksonville inject hundreds of thousands of dollars into its tax-increment financing fund.

“We will ultimately reimburse Bartlett about $3.5 million, and we will collect about $4 million in real estate taxes,” he says. “So the amount that is not reimbursed to Bartlett of the $4 million- around $400,000- will end up in the TIF fund for general use within the village.”

Officials including Jumper have previously stated the importance of the village’s TIF district in landing Bartlett. He says the hope is that the company’s move will demonstrate how valuable the district can be.

“We made the decision to put this TIF district in place in 2001 not having any idea what it’s impact would be,” says Jumper. “And here we are, twelve years later, when the impact is where we end up with a twenty-plus-million-dollar property locating in the village.”

The TIF agreement for all properties in the district expires in 2024 at the end of its statutory limit.

The committee also heard from two electricity consulting companies making final pitches to be picked by the village to guide it through the electric aggregation process if voters approve a referendum in the spring. No decision will be made until next week.